(Why aren't things built to last like that anymore? I doubt any modern hardware will work in 30 years, but the 80s comps in museums still fire right up) I still have my Commodore Amiga 600 - still perfectly operational, even though the mouse is almost dead. My first PC however, a Celeron 366MHz die...

I've had a similar problem. My previous system was a C2D@3GHz on a Gigabyte board. The PSU was a Corsair HX520. When I upgraded the mobo, CPU and RAM, the PSU started emitting a very high frequency tone. It sounded like an old CRT TV being on in another room. To make matters worse, I was the only on...

What's a lot of heat? It's still just a dual core. Others might have quad (or more) cores, producing even more heat. A friend of mine has a Q6600 overclocked to 3+ ghz. This CPU produces 135W of heat. (when overclocked, it's TDP is 135W to be precise) That's a lot :) It doesn't matter how many core...

A C2D isn't exactly a high-end CPU that produces a lot of heat. I assume you didn't have a dedicated GPU either. Well, it isn't a high-end CPU but it does produce a lot of heat. Please consider that there's a heavy overclock involved - from 1.8 to 3.0GHz and the production process is 65nm. All ener...

IMO they`re far from negligible, especially when dealing with higher ambient temps and slower psu fans. Moving the psu at the bottom noticeably reduced exhaust temperature for me and allowed me to use a slower fan. Another drawback with the typical placement at the top is that the psu fan is often ...

IMO, I don't think there's any reason to move the PSU to the bottom location apart from marketing. It has just become a hype. Thermal gains are negligible. The "convection theory" falls apart if there are any fans in the case. In 1998 you had generic beige boxes with moulded fascia. In 2004 you had ...

Looks over-engineered. I can't help but be skeptical - Noctua fans are usually grossly overpriced and not exceptional in terms of acoustics or performance. This "new" fan looks like the marketing people had too much to say in the process of designing.

Looking forward to reading the SPCR test though.

lhopitalified wrote:I always get Thermaltake and Thermalright confused. They *are* different companies, right?

Yes, and only one of them is right for quiet computing.

I bet your power company loves you Out of curiosity: which games require this much computing power?

And... how quiet is the rig with those, what... 13 fans?

I think that none of the actions you mention are needed. Have a look at my sig, this system is far from overheating even under the heaviest of tasks, and remains quiet at all times. All I did was remove the honeycomb grill from the back (nice, audible improvement) and that's it.

Interesting read, thanks! I hope the server will perform flawlessly.
As for the loud CPU heatsink I would get Scythe Mugen 2 and be done with it You say that there's a passive heatsink included with the RAID controller? What prevents you from trying it out?

So... you need to remove the side panel to open the front and clean the dust filters. Why is that not listed as a serious con? Am I the only one who has a problem with that? Having read the review, I'm glad that Solo2 is not a total disappointment. There are some nice improvements but not enough to ...

I wonder if the open top panel will be sold separately. Swapping it on the original Solo is a matter of what... 4 rivets?

Have you thought about replacing the CPU heatsink with a (semi)passive one? Maybe Thermalright HR-05 would fit? You can attach an 80mm fan to it

I like your drive cage, but cable spaghetti needs more attention

Slipstreams (the fan that comes with Mugen2) are very well behaved. It shouldn't produce any significant vibration even at higher speeds. The fan that came with my Mugen works very smoothly; even at max 1400RPM all I can hear is the air rushing past fins, no vibrations. There are two probable reason...

Ah, the trembling hands whenever I changed the heatsink on my Athlon XP! I don't miss those times :) I think since modern CPUs (especially Intel) tend to have the heatspreader soldered to the die, the risk is just too high and the gain is too little. Besides - the heatsink mounting mechanisms are de...

I don't think you should be concerned. The melting point of plastic is at least 120*C. If your heatsink gets that hot, the side panel will be the least of your problems

I've yet to see a convicing argument that it makes any difference. Separate chamber - yes, it is a great idea. Top or bottom - little importance. top mounting may result in the power supply being an air intake I see that as an advantage, that's the way "passive" cooling should work. Modern PSUs prod...

WUT? Flimsy power button not fixed? You still need to open the front panel to clean the filters? At least are those fan mounts 120mm? Why no removable modular drive cage to let you choose between server and a gaming rig? And the color scheme is just gloomy. Okay, I thought that the Sonata family was...

All right, here's the update. I've used MSI's OC Genie to overclock the CPU. This is the first time an automated OC software gave nice results, I had only negative experience with those before :) It bumped CPU frequency to 4.2Ghz and increased DDR3 voltage to 1.65V (I'm not happy with voltage change...

Wow! MikeC and Frenchie replying in my topic! :D Thanks for your input, I will try to overclock the i5, as I intended to do that anyway :) Will post the results. You don't mention PSU -- it could well be coming from that as well. I listened closely and made sure that my Corsair HX520 produces a quie...

Hi! I upgraded my rig (see my signature) with the following parts: CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K + Scythe Mugen 2 MB: MSI P67A-C45 B3 RAM: Kingston DDR3 1333Mhz, 8GB dual channel While it is nice and quiet under normal operation (load), there's quite a lot of coil whine when it's idling. I'm pretty sure ...

Two questions:

1. How would this work with the "vertical" part ducted to the exhaust 120mm case fan?
2. Doesn't the horizontal part disrupt the ideal airflow pattern (front to back) in a case (say... Solo)?

In other words - how about testing various schemes in an actual case?

Have a look at Arctic Cooling's Alpine 64:
http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/cpu/1 ... tml?c=2181

Yes, there is:
http://www.powercolor.com/Global/produc ... asp?id=214

I've got a little quote for you

xan_user wrote:Nothing thermaltake makes is ever quiet. If they could figure out how to make a flash drive noisy, they would.

Stupid side vents are stupid Other than that - looks rather generic, don't you think?

Looks like the old platitude "everything's bigger in America" still stands

I bought a passive 5750 from Powercolor to replace my dying EVGA 8800GTS and must say I'm extremely pleased! Framerates are much higher, everything inside the case runs cooler [5750 is more energy efficient and smaller than 8800] and it is noiseless :D Finally my system runs everything fine and is q...

There a simple fix to the Solo's flimsy buttons. If you stick a small piece of plastic on the button, the distance it has to go when you push it will be shorter. So you only have to press it in 3mm or so. This prolongs the plastic springs' longevity. Personally, I didn't like the Solo's super-bright...